vnc 56: some scattered thoughts
I went into Vanitas no Carte chapter 56 expecting the side story mochijun told us we’d be getting this month. Something cute and fluffy and probably relaxing after the absolute madness of VnC 55 and the emotional heft of VnC 55.5.
So I wasn’t really expecting to end the chapter by jumping out of my chair and collapsing dramatically on the floor.
Tldr, chapter 56 manages to be an adorable side story while also elevating my levels of hype for chapter 57 from their already high “oh boy, I can’t wait to see Domi and Jeanne’s conversation!” to the next level, which is apparently incoherent screaming.
As always, this post contains massive spoilers for VnC chapter 56 and will probably not make sense if you haven’t already read it. With that, here are some scattered somewhat incoherent thoughts on VnC 56…!
These three are adorable.
Luna. I love them. Luna being a parent to Misha and Vanitas is fuel for my soul. They can’t tie their hair up right. They were planning on getting the number of fèves wrong from the very start. They were also planning on making a cake involving a plant with a face on it and some kind of floating black rock. god I love Luna so much—
Something interesting seems to be happening with Vanitas’s memories of Luna. It isn’t that they’re changing, exactly. But the tone of the memories we see— the memories Vanitas allows himself, and the audience, to revisit— is absolutely starting to shift from antagonistic to much more familial and warm.
And I think this change in how the memories are presented is (at least partially) happening due to Vanitas starting to let himself accept that he truly did love Luna. During previous arcs he doesn’t just hide his memories from Noé— he hides his memories from himself. He’s constantly irritated when he remembers them, and only lets himself revisit the moments where he insisted he disliked Luna. The only time he’ll admit that he didn’t truly hate Luna is when he’s feverish and at his lowest point, separated from the Book and Noé.
But after the Exposition Universalle arc, it seems like Vanitas has become a lot more willing to remember the good. Actually, that’s not exactly true— the first time we see Vanitas positively remember Luna is right after he uses their power to cure Chloé and save Gévaudan. And I think that’s pretty interesting. Just as Vanitas is panicking over his newfound romantic love for Jeanne, he’s also (on a much more internal level) starting to realize that he also really did love Luna.
In a way, I think this panic might be at least part of the fuel for what Vanitas does during the Exposition Universalle. His shell is starting to crack— he’s letting himself remember those warm, happy moments with Luna that he’s pushed away for years, he’s developing romantic feelings for Jeanne. And now he’s faced with someone who combines aspects of what he loves about Jeanne and what he loved about Luna, someone whom he (arguably) feels even more strongly about than either of them at this point, and he can’t let himself love Noé too. So he makes that one desperate last attempt to rebuild the walls he’s held onto for so long. If he can cut out the root cause of all of this change, if he can kill Noé, maybe he can remain loveless. Maybe he can remain “free”.
But this isn’t a post about Vanitas and Noé this is a post about VnC 56 so let’s try to stay on track.
The whole reason I brought up Vanitas’s shifting memories of Luna in the first place is because I think we’re going to see a similar shift in how Noé remembers the Teacher in the future. Just in the opposite direction. This is just a guess, but I think we’re gonna see a lot fewer happy memories and a lot more… less great ones. Our protagonists don’t have gaps in their memories of their parental figures, they just seem to unconsciously choose which memories they remember and which ones they bury. And I think being confronted with a side of Comte that cheerfully admits to nearly killing Dominique and Vanitas during the course of the Exposition is gonna make Noé start to face the memories he may have buried.
Returning to the chapter at hand! Mikhail’s horrific expression as he tells Vanitas he wants to choose his own piece is just fantastic. Vanitas disliking the cake, but eating more of it anyways so Mikhail can’t realize that there were three fèves hidden in it all along is adorable. Luna is Luna and they’re such a good parent and I love them.
Mochijun ends the flashback by once again calling attention to Vanitas’s redacted name, this time putting it in direct contrast to the name he’s currently going by.
Ever since Chapter 55 I’ve been paying more attention to what the characters of VnC call each other. Fun fact, the only person who actually calls Vanitas “Vanitas” this chapter is Noé— Amelia calls him “Monsieur Vanitas”, Misha calls him “brother”, Luna calls him “XXXX”, and Dante calls him “quack”.
That’s pretty much all of my thoughts on the flashback part of 56, so with that, let’s go…
The adorableness continues as Vanitas bakes Noé an apology tarte tatin. Noé is adorably excited, and Vanitas is adorably annoyed, and Amelia is ador— actually, Amelia is quite sus the whole time. Maybe it’s just because we haven’t spent this much time in the hotel in a while, but I just can’t shake the feeling that Amelia is acting off. But looking closely at how she acts, she seems just the same as always. Why does she feel so off? Is this just me being paranoid about Comte’s shapeshifting? Where the hell is Murr—-
Dante arrives on scene, and he seems… off, too. At first I couldn’t quite place why, but unlike with Amelia, I think I’ve figured it out. In the past, Dante’s always been energized when giving Vanitas new information, excited to shake his buddy down for cash in exchange for the latest scoop. Thirty minutes ago he was loudly berating Vanitas for all the chaos he caused the other day. You’d think he’d at least tease Vanitas a bit for baking a cake for his sugar daddy. But now he just seems blank. He blandly comments on the baking, stares at Vanitas and Noé for a moment, and immediately cuts to the chase. Why?
And then my brain started adding it up.
Dante works for Vanitas, but he also works for Marquis Machina. There’s absolutely no way in hell he doesn’t know the Senate is looking for Chloé and Jean-Jacques. And now the two of them have shown up right under his nose.
Come to think of it, what did Dante do in those thirty minutes when he was gone?
Dante’s in an absolutely epic dilemma and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Based on the story he tells himself, the party line he’s been insisting on since the very start, his course of action should be very clear. Dhampirs only care about other dhams, so Dante should to do what’s best for the other dhams— tell Marquis Machina where Chloé is and profit.
Who cares if doing so betrays the trust of the first non-dhampir to ever truly treat Dante as an equal? Who cares if it directly causes harm to two vampires, who cares if it hurts the guy Dante cheered for during his battle with Astolfo, who cares if it hurts someone Dante won’t quite admit he sees as a friend? None of those people are dhams, so Dante doesn’t care… right?
This is where we’re gonna start to hit…
Chloé and Jean-Jacques are in Paris. This is. Feckin delightful. Did they come to Paris because Vanitas told them to? Or has something gone horribly awry? Why would Vanitas tell them to come to Paris? Does he have some plan for where to hide them? Is Chloé just taking a nap or is something w r o n g?
There are two main parties looking for Chloé and Jean-Jacques— the church, trying to erase the evidence of their past crimes, and the senate, trying to find the vampire who could reawaken Faustina.
But these parties are each made up of their own unique factions, each with a different motivation. Ruthven, who’s working with Gano, who’s working for the Vampire Eradication Faction within the church, who’s being investigated by fellow paladins Roland and Olivier. Antoine, who acts like the perfect senator, but actually seems to be working on behalf of the de Sades, whose younger sister just so happens to have overheard some hot gossip about her siblings needing to hunt down that d’Apchier vampire.
Thinking about it, every single character in Vanitas no Carte has some connection to the tinderbox that is the senate vs church situation.
This is why I ended VnC chapter 56 lying incoherently on the floor. Chloé and Jean-Jacques are a lit match and Mochijun has just tossed them into the mix. I don’t know how high the flames are gonna fly but I absolutely cannot wait to watch the fire burn.
Thanks for reading these somewhat coherent scattered thoughts on VnC 56! As per usual, everything in this post is just my interpretation of VnC and should be taken with a massive massive grain of salt! In case you couldn’t tell I am insanely hyped for where this upcoming plotline is going to go and can’t wait for the next chapter. Chapter 55.5 was the chapter that mochijun has been setting up for since the very start of the manga, and I think this upcoming arc is going to set us on a course towards the overarching church vs. senate storyline that’s been running in the shadows of the past 56 chapters. I am so goddamn excited to see it happen.
Thanks again for reading u r a god
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